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UPDATED: Kevin Smith prepping 'Clerks III' (more details)

Posted Friday, December 7, 2012 at 3:31 PM Central
Last updated Monday, December 10, 2012 at 1:12 PM Central

by John Couture

When it rains, it pours.

That's what it feels like this week with all of the Kevin Smith news popping up out of nowhere. I really did try keep it all in one story, but sometimes news is just so big, it deserves its own article.

I think you'd agree that this is newsworthy enough to warrant a stand alone piece, Kevin Smith is coming out of "retirement" to write and direct Clerks III. Yes, you read that right, the film that started it all will officially be a part of a trilogy and somewhere the geek gods are smiling in approval.

This is not to be confused with next year's animated film Jay & Silent Bob's Groovymovie which Smith teased earlier this week with the first theatrical poster (right). As you can see, he was already getting cheeky with the whole "retirement" proclamation.

Even earlier this week, Kevin updated his fans via Twitter (natch) that his "last film" Hit Somebody was going to be converted (not to be confused with 3D post-conversion) from a theatrical film to a TV miniseries. This left him with a hole in his calendar (and filmography) and he teased us yet again.

Luckily, we didn't have to wait years, months or even days to find out what his plans were. A scant 6 minutes later he followed up with the revelation that immediately sent shock waves across the Internet like a nasty Dave Semenko hit out of nowhere.

In the past, Kevin has said that Clerks was about his life as a 20-something and that Clerks II was a reflection of life in his 30s. So now, at age 42, it would logically make sense that when we re-enter Dante and Randal's lives in Clerks III, it will be with the wizened experience of men in their 40s.

Clerks was a poignant look at a man on the cusp of becoming an adult and still unsure what he wanted to do with his life. Dante, quite literally, had one leg stuck firmly in the past (Caitlin) and one sheepishly looking towards the future (Veronica).

In Clerks II, not much had changed in a decade as Dante was still stuck between two women (Emma and Becky), unable to make a decision at first. But, the second film was about settling down and making adult decisions, to which Dante finally progressed to a point where he was able to do so.

What will Clerks III look like?

So, where will Clerks III take us? If we follow the normal trajectory of a man's life after he settles down, you would think that Clerks III will be about Dante starting a family and how that dynamic changes his relationship with Randal.

Of course, Kevin already navigated these waters with Jersey Girl, so it would seem unlikely that he would go back to that well. In fact, I think many fans would advise he not do Clerks III if it's simply going to be Jersey Girl 2: Electric Boogaloo. (Personally, I enjoyed Jersey Girl and as a new father, that film totally plays differently for me now, but it worked for me both times).

I could see Clerks III going in any number of ways from Dante becoming a bachelor again following a divorce from Becky or her untimely demise to Dante and Becky expecting their first child. Contrary to what people will undoubtedly claim, focusing Clerks III on the pregnancy and impending birth of Dante's first child would differentiate it enough from Jersey Girl (at least in my mind at least).

Given the light and comic tones of the first two films, I don't really see Smith throwing us a curve ball and making Clerks III a darker drama in which Dante and Randal focus on their own mortality, but Kevin has been surprising us a lot lately. I do know one thing for certain, he wouldn't jeopardize his legacy if he didn't have an amazing idea for Clerks III.

Don't get caught in semantics

And as for all those haters out there who are piling on and saying that Kevin reneged on his word about retirement, he pulled off an amazing semantic victory that would make the best lawyer in the world smile by turning his Hit Somebody transformation into justification for directing another film.

But let's be honest. Kevin Smith never said that he was absolutely, without a doubt never going to direct ever again. He simply stated all along that he was out of stories to tell.

He was tired of writing and directing and he wanted to shift his energies elsewhere. He has done that with incredible success. You could easily argue that with his TV series Comic Book Men, the Hit Somebody miniseries, the podcasts and the live appearance specials, Kevin Smith is more relevant in pop culture today than he ever was when he was simply just a movie writer and director.

So, here we are. Kevin Smith has at least one more story to tell. I stand here waiting with my $10 in hand and I couldn't be happier.

The origin podcast

There were a few details that surfaced over the weekend on Twitter about Clerks III and finally today, Kevin released a podcast he taped with Ralph Garman and Scott Mosier yesterday that goes into the story of how Clerks III came into existence. You can listen to the entire podcast here, but I will hit upon the highlights below.

  • Kevin has a 70 page treatment for Clerks III that he is confident that he can convert into a script very quickly.
  • What will the story be? All of our conjecture aside, Kevin naturally didn't release many details on the story for Clerks III. However, he did say that it will follow the lead of its predecessors and take place over the course of a single day. Although, he did admit that much like Clerks II, there will be some stuff at the end that goes into the future a bit.
  • Speaking of the story, he didn't divulge too much about the plot other than to say that it revolves more around Randal this time instead of Dante, although naturally they are both in the film.
  • He said that he's aiming for a run time between 90 and 100 minutes which would be consistent with the first two films.
  • He is aiming for a release in 2014 to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Clerks. It's not drop dead date, but one that he hopes to hit so that everything falls into place neatly.
  • He goes into the economics of making the film a bit and how The Weinstein Company has the first right to refuse and last shot to buy the film once completed. It's a tangled web that is best told by Kevin, so go listen to the podcast already. He did say that he hopes to use Kickstarter to fund one half of the budget and he will personally match the funds to set the final budget for the film.
  • To that end, one of the potential reward levels will allow you to choose to be an extra in the film. Kevin said that he needs lots and lots of extras for Clerks III. That's pretty interesting considering the first two films had little to no extras.
  • Kevin tweeted that he was planning on filming it in black & white, ala Clerks, but he seemed to back off that a bit in the podcast. It seems that he feels it would disingenuous to digitally film it in color and then simply hit a button to turn it black & white. Scott suggested they could film on black & white film, but it might be cost prohibitive. I say have your cake and eat it too Kevin. Let the audience decide. If Peter Jackson can release five different formats for The Hobbit, then why not release Clerks III simultaneously in both black & white and color. Let the audience decide!*
  • And finally, Kevin admitted that he has only told a handful or people the story outline for Clerks III, but that each time he tells it, he cries at the end.

    • * While the idea might be cost-prohibitive given that you would have to double the screen count in market, I still think it would be a truly unique way to go. Also, you could simply create the two versions and send them out randomly. That way, going in, the audience wouldn't know which version it is getting, black & white or color.

    I know that I would most likely go and see it both ways and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Then, you can offer a black & white DVD and a color DVD, with both versions available on Blu-ray.